Greater Accra

Our expert local tour guides will meet with you on your arrival at the Kotoka International Airport Accra, which is situated on the beautiful gold coast of Western Africa. Look out for the Ashanti African Tours sign when you leave the main terminal building after passing through customs. Make yourself known to your guides who will be accompanying you for the duration of your time in Ghana and they will take care of you from here. After boarding our vehicle, which will be your mode of transport for the duration of your tour, we transfer you to your accommodation which is situated in Accra. Once we have checked you in, our experienced guide will offer you Akwaaba (welcome) and brief you on all aspects of your trip. You can enjoy your evening meal at the hotel restaurant whilst acclimatising yourself to West Africa.

Atewa Range

Our first morning with you here in Ghana as we head for arguably Ghana’s premier location for rare endemic butterfly species Atewa Range. We will be dedicating two full days at this excellent location. Atewa, which hosts the unique upland rainforest, one of the most endangered habitats in West Africa is unfortunately threatened itself by mining and illegal logging activities. The forest of Atewa host the highest richness of butterflies in Ghana, over 50 species are known only from Atewa in the country, including rarities such as Western Mimic Forester (Euphaedra eusemoides) and Moyamba Harlequin (Mimeresia moyambina). Atewa has several common species that are rare everywhere else in Ghana: Green Orange Forester (Euphaedra zampa), Green-spotted Forester (Euphaedra francina) and the Uniform Bush Brown (Bicyclus uniformis) but its highlight is the narrowly endemic Atewa Dotted Border (Mylothris atewa), which is confined to the upland rainforest of the Range.

Atewa Range

Again, we break the day with lunch but dedicate the majority of our time enjoying the splendid variety of species Atewa has to offer. Our evenings will be spent at our nearby guesthouse where we relax and add to our lists.

Bobiri Forest Reserve

We set off early after breakfast on the morning of day 4 with our destination being the World famous Bobiri Butterfly Sanctuary. It is just over a 2 hours’ drive to Bobiri from Atewa so we will still be able to enjoy a full day’s butterfly watching and photography. The sanctuary is now only a 5000 hectare fragment of the once continues dry semi-deciduous rainforest, that covered over a million hectares of land in Ghana. These types of forests have an unbelievably rich mixture of butterflies from the wet forests to guinea savannah. Results of extensive studies in Bobiri estimated the number of butterfly species to exceed 630, quite exceptional considering its size.

Bobiri Forest Reserve

Day 2 at Bobiri Forest Reserve. The forest is unbelievably rich is Bebearia, Euriphene, Euphaedra and other fruit-feeding butterflies. Charaxes or Pashas are often seen along the main track in the forest and Liptena blues are frequently seen flying slowly near the guesthouse. The bamboo spot always has a good number of mud-puddling butterflies; sometimes clouds of African Nettle-tree Butterflies (Libythea labdaca) and different species of Grass Yellows (Eurema) fly in clouds around the passing visitors. Two times even the extremely rare Giant African Swallowtail (Papilio antimachus) was observed here. There is accommodation in the heart of the forest at the comfortable guesthouse where we will be enjoying our lunches to maximise our time here in the field, however as the guesthouse only has a generator to produce electricity that is switched off at 22.00pm each night we will be staying in a comfortable hotel 40 minutes’ drive away.

We bid farewell to Bobiri after an excellent few days enjoying the diversity and beautiful multi coloured butterflies found here and travel to a new forest location we have discovered with arguably our most diverse number of butterflies with many quality species. We dedicate quality time in this forest with our packed lunch each day to maximise our chance of seeing more of the exceptional butterflies that occur here. Kwabina Sam forest is about 45 minutes’ drive from our guest house. It is a very good semi degraded rainforest with a lot of open areas which make it a good site for West African butterflies. Our company are very keen to promote this location for which will help in the long-term protection of this forest habitat.

Day 2 at Kwabena Sam Forest. Some of the species we hope to see here includes Ashanti Forester (Bebearia ashantina), Brilliant Nymph (Cynandra opis), Grose-smith's Nymph (Euriphene grosesmithi), Atossa Nymph (Euriphene atossa), Sophus Forester (Bebearia sophus), Laetitia's Forester (Bebearia Laetitia), Hebes Pink Forester (Euphaedra hebes), Simple Nymph (Euriphene simplex), Dark Nymph (Euriphene aridatha), Friendly Nymph (Euriphene amicia), Gambia Nymph (Euriphene gambiae), Common Brown Nymph (Euriphene ampedusa), Cutter's Forester (Bebearia cutteri), Common Pink Forester (Euphaedra xypete), Unmarked Pink Forester (Euphaedra diffusa), Crocker's Forester (Euphaedra crockery), Common Orange Forester (Euphaedra ruspina), Perseis Mimic Forester (Euphaedra perseis), Common Blue-Banded Forester (Euphaedra harpalyce), Western Blue-Banded Forester (Euphaedra eupalus), Western Emperor Swallowtail (Papilio horribilis), Western Yellow-Banded Swallowtail (Papilio menestheus)

Day 3 at Kwabena Sam Forest After a full morning butterfly watching on day 8 we set off after lunch towards Kakum National Park. Our aim is to arrive in the evening, check into our hotel and relax whilst identifying the many butterfly photos we have been taking.

Kakum National Park

Kakum is another excellent forest area for butterflies, which covers over 50 000 hectares. Nine swallowtail species are expected to be seen here, it is also home for a wide range of Pashas, including the Giant Charaxes (Charaxes castor) and its mythological brother Black-bordered Charaxes (Charaxes pollux). One of the specialities in Kakum is Augerger’s Glider (Cymothoe aubergeri), which is a rare West African endemic, known only from Kakum in Ghana and two or three sites in Ivory Coast. The magnificent Giant African Skipper (Pyrrhochalcia iphis) is quite common in the forest. We break the day into two sections and enjoy a well-earned rest after our lunch before heading back to the forest. Our evening will be spent looking at our photographs, enjoying our evening meal with a cold drink and adding to our rapidly growing butterfly checklist.

Ankasa Conservation Area

An early morning departure after breakfast towards Ankasa National Park where we will be staying at a basic guesthouse only a 5 minutes’ drive from the forest. Being so close to this beautiful remote forest enables us a more relaxed morning with very little travel necessary, a welcome comfort. We dedicate the afternoon and next two full days exploring Ankasa as there are many specialties to enjoy.

Ankasa Conservation Area

Day 2 at Ankasa Reserve We aim to see a few butterflies with western distribution that have the eastern edge of their range in the south-western corner of Ghana, including Veronica Nymph (Euriphene veronica) and Crowley’s Forest Sylph (Ceratrichia crowleyi), others are associated with the wetter rainforest such as Cinnamon Scarce Spirit (Loxolexis holocausta) and the magnificent Hadrian’s White Charaxes (Charaxes hadrianus). One of Africa’s most delicate butterflies also occurs here. Pseudopontiinae is an ancient subfamily of Pieridae, consist of only five species, four of which were recently described, based on DNA analysis. The Ankasa population belongs to the original Ghost (Pseudopontia paradoxa). The butterfly flies extremely slowly in the dense undergrowth of forest. It is local and rare near Ankasa gate. Ankasa has many bird and mammal species in addition to moths and dragonflies also to enjoy, as we have so much time here we have time to enjoy all nature has to offer us.

Ankasa Conservation Area

Day 3 at Ankasa Reserve Our dedicated camp team can either bring our lunch to us in the field, alternatively we can return to our accommodation for some rest and lunch in the afternoons. Our evenings will be spent admiring the many moths and other nature whilst relaxing over our evening meal and refreshments

Ankasa Conservation Area

A full morning butterfly watching at Ankasa Reserve before we set off back towards Accra.

Elmina

We will visit Kissi Forest Reserve near Elmina a small remnant of forest near Kissi is of a drier type with a special species composition. We encounter more commoner butterflies here, one might expect to see the Mocker Swallowtail (Papilio dardanus) and the Citrus Swallowtail (Papilio demodocus) here along with the Common Forester (Euphaedra medon). The Giant African Skipper (Pyrrhochalcia iphis) is common here, but lucky ones might even see the smaller but similar Western Blue Policeman (Pyrrhiades lucagus), which has a very narrow range along the Western Coast from Ghana to Liberia. The Kissi Forest is also the type-locality of the rare Maximiliano’s Forest Swift (Melphina maximiliani), which is very rare throughout its entire range. We continue our journey back to Accra where we will be lodging for the evening in preparation to visit Aburi in the morning.

Aburi Botanical Gardens

An early start as we head out of Accra to Aburi Botanical Gardens in the Eastern Region of the Southern part of Ghana. The gardens occupy an area of 64.8 hectares and was opened in March 1890. A full morning dedicated here as we have arranged a late check out of our hotel due to flights leaving in the evenings, we hope to see Mocker Swallowtail (Papillo dardanus), Narrow – banded Green Swallowtail (Papilio nireus), Mimetic Swallowtail (Papilio cynorta), Blue Vagrant (Nepheronia thalassina), Savannah Dotted Border (Mylothris aburi), Spica Dotted Border (Mylothris spica), Karsh’s Dotted Border (Mylothris joapura), Seven–striped Liptena (Liptena septistrigata), Simple Liptena (Liptena simplicia), Peter’s Pearly (Eresiomera petersi), Western Flash (Hypophytala hyettina), Common Flash (Hypophytala hyettoides), Western Scalloped Epilola (Stempfferia ciconia), Clench’s Diopetes (Pilodeudorix laticlavia), Black Fairy Playboy (Paradeudrix moyambina), Coffee Playboy (Deudorix lorisona)

Accra

After a wonderful morning we can return to Accra and freshen up prior to our early evening meal reflecting on a wonderful Ghana Butterfly and Photography Tour. As mentioned due to most flights departing Ghana in the late evenings we have arranged a late check out from your hotel which is a 15 minutes’ drive from the airport. Our team will then transfer you to the airport for your departure.